Hamburger Hill is the 1987 movie directed by John Irvin and written by James Carabatsos about the famous and brutal 10-day battle during the Vietnam War for a hill between the 101st Airborne Company of the US Army and the army of North Vietnam in which hundreds were killed and wounded on both sides in what came to resemble trench warfare and spat out injured and dead American soldiers in such a way as to suggest they had been shredded like hamburger meat. The real battle garnered major attention in Washington, especially among Congress, and was the last major battle of the Vietnam War with Richard Nixon soon after beginning to return US troops to the United States.

The Last King of Scotland is the story of Idi Admin (Forest Whitaker), the leader who came to power in Uganda in a coup in the 1970s.  But the story is told through the eyes of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) who is bored with his life in Scotland and decides to go and see the world, but lacking the imagination to select a place to visit, closes his eyes, spins a globe and makes a promise to himself that he will go to whichever country his finger lands on.  Obviously that country is Uganda.

Conspiracy is so accurate and realistic, forcing the viewer to see by proxy a real meeting held by Nazi Germany’s administrators to plan The Holocaust that it actually leaves the viewer quite literally on the verge of nausea.  It is a horribly sad, but true tale, based upon the one surviving copy of the meeting’s notes found in the aftermath of World War II.

The duo which brought us The Beach in 2000 now brings to theaters a zombie movie that will ultimately change the genre from one predominated by B-movies to one where humanity is examined after society has been removed to help us learn more about how essential socialization is to humanity. If that sounds like something too profound to be jammed into a mere 113 minutes of film, think again.

Director Zack Snyder‘s monumental Greco epic is something few have not yet heard about.  It skillfully combines an intense visual and coloring scheme, superb writing, fantastic acting, and absolutely monumental effects and sets to bring to life a famous battle in which a group of Greek soldiers were able to hold back the immense army of the Persian Empire.